Building Emotional Intelligence From Birth
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand, express, and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. There are five key elements to emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, social-awareness, empathy and motivation.
Cultivating emotional intelligence from an early age sets the foundation for healthy relationships and resilience.
So how can you nurture emotional intelligence in your child, starting from birth?
Respond Calmly and Consistently
Babies communicate their needs through cries, giggles, sounds, and gestures. By responding calmly and with consistency, we are teaching them that their needs matter and their emotions are valid. This builds trust and emotional security.
Label Emotions from the Beginning
Right from the start we can label emotions for babies. For example, say, “You’re smiling—you look so happy!” This helps them begin associating feelings with words. FeelLinks Plush Emotion Dolls are toy tested for ages 0+; they are a fun way to introduce and name feelings while letting your child play with them!
Model Emotional Awareness
Children learn by watching and listening. Express your own emotions in healthy ways: “I’m feeling frustrated right now, so I’m going to take a deep breath.” This shows them how to process and express emotions in healthy ways.
Encourage Empathy
Help children recognize emotions in others. Point out expressions in real life, movies, TV and books, such as Feel Trip: a journey through ordinary emotions: “Look, the boy looks sad, he’s frowning and has tears. What do you think he needs?” This fosters empathy and perspective-taking.
Provide Tools for Self-Regulation
As children grow, teach calming techniques like deep breathing, counting, or squeeze a stress ball or FeelLinks Plush Emotion Doll. From the beginning, babies benefit from co-regulation where an adult soothes them through singing or gentle rocking.
Celebrate Emotional Milestones
Acknowledge your child’s efforts when they are managing themselves in healthy ways: “You shared your toy car even though it was hard, that was very kind of you!” Positive reinforcement encourages them to continue practicing these skills.
Create a Safe Emotional Space
Make your home a safe place where all feelings are welcomed and validated. Let your child know it’s okay to feel all the feels: sad, angry, anxious, or joyful - help them navigate all their emotions by listening and validating.
Teaching emotional intelligence starts with consistent, calm, trusted connections. By validating your child’s emotions and modeling healthy habits, you are encouraging a lifetime of emotional well-being and strong relationships.
Our FeelLinks hands-on resources are a great way to introduce emotions, broaden emotional vocabulary, manage emotions, learn and practice empathy and grow in emotional resilience.
Check out the resources I have created just for a child’s growth in emotional intelligence:
Feel Trip: A journey through ordinary emotions
Ultimate Feelings Bundle *FeelLinks very best deal!*
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